Una megaiglesia del área de Chicago, que ya está bajo fuego por decirle al personal que mantenga la Secreto del diagnóstico de COVID-19 y supuestamente obligándolos a trabajar en condiciones inseguras—ahora requiere que el personal firme una renuncia que libere a la iglesia de responsabilidad si se enferman o mueren. Este requisito se produjo pocos días después de que uno de los pastores de la iglesia, el pastor asistente Ángel Escamilla, muriera de COVID-19 el 29 de marzo.
La Iglesia-Iglesia del Calvario de Naperville—envié la exención al personal la semana pasada, que dice: “SOY CONSCIENTE DE QUE DEBIDO A LA ACTUAL PANDEMIA DE COVID-19, ESTAS ACTIVIDADES PODRÍAN SER PELIGROSAS AL EXPONERME AL VIRUS QUE CAUSA UNA ENFERMEDAD EXTREMA Y POSIBLEMENTE LA MUERTE”. (Todo en mayúsculas en el documento original)
El documento establece además que el participante “PARTICIPA VOLUNTARIAMENTE” en estas actividades y acepta asumir “CUALQUIER Y TODO RIESGO” de enfermedad, lesión o muerte. Agrega: “Libero para siempre a la Iglesia Calvary de Naperville y sus directores, oficiales. . . y representantes” de cualquier reclamo por cualquier pérdida, incluyendo enfermedad, lesión o muerte.
El 24 de marzo, menos de una semana antes de la muerte del pastor Escamilla, Calvary Pastor principal Marty Sloan había dado instrucciones al personal para que no le dijera a nadie que Escamilla había dado positivo por COVID-19. Además, según un miembro del personal, Sloan requirió que algunos empleados asistieran a sesiones de grabación con personas que tuvieron contacto con Escamilla y los familiares enfermos de Escamilla del 16 al 24 de marzo.
Un empleado que estuvo en esas sesiones de grabación dio positivo por COVID-19.
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La semana pasada, Diane Bell, directora de recursos humanos de Calvary Naperville, envió un correo electrónico al personal, incluida la nueva exención de responsabilidad. El correo electrónico establece que no solo el personal debe firmar la renuncia, sino que también deben firmar los contratistas y voluntarios que estarán en las instalaciones de la iglesia.
“Si no firma la renuncia, ¡no se le permite ingresar a nuestra propiedad!” dice el correo electrónico.
El correo electrónico de Bell y la exención de responsabilidad me fueron enviados por un destinatario del correo electrónico de Bell, que pidió permanecer en el anonimato por temor a represalias. La persona también me pidió que no imprimiera la renuncia en su totalidad, diciendo: “No tengo ninguna duda de que a cada empleado se le envió una versión ligeramente diferente basada en la capacidad (de Calvary Naperville) para identificar quién de nosotros podría contactar a la prensa para pedir consejo si se enviara un original completo. Esta publicado."
La persona que me envió el correo electrónico de Bell no es la misma persona que me envió los correos electrónicos de la iglesia hace más de una semana, lo que instruyó al personal a permanecer en silencio sobre el diagnóstico de COVID de la pastora Escamilla.
Durante las últimas dos semanas, me comuniqué varias veces con Calvary Naperville y el pastor Sloan para obtener comentarios y actualizaciones, pero nadie respondió. El viernes, me comuniqué nuevamente con Becky López, asistente ejecutiva del pastor Sloan, y Sarah Dawes, directora ejecutiva asociada de comunicaciones en Calvary, específicamente para preguntarles sobre la exención. Hasta la fecha, nadie ha respondido a esos correos electrónicos tampoco.
¿Investigación del Departamento de Salud?
Después de mi primer artículo sobre Calvary Naperville, muchos hicieron preguntas sobre si las autoridades, específicamente, el Departamento de Salud del Condado de DuPage o el Departamento de Salud Pública de Illinois (IDPH), investigarían lo que sucedió en Calvary Naperville.
La semana pasada, Chad Dawes, esposo de Sarah Dawes, afirmó en varias plataformas, entre ellas El mensaje cristiano y Facebook, que IDPH había "auditado" Calvary Naperville y descubrió que la iglesia no había hecho nada malo.
Le pregunté específicamente a Sarah Dawes sobre ese reclamo y si Calvary tenía documentación del IDPH, pero no respondió.
Sin embargo, el sábado, Melaney Arnold, oficial de información pública del IDPH, me dijo: “el IDPH no regula ni inspecciona las iglesias, por lo que no conozco un informe de auditoría. Los funcionarios de salud pública consultarán con una iglesia cuando haya un brote de enfermedad, pero nuevamente, no regulamos las iglesias, por lo que no sé cómo encontrar una instalación que cumpla”.
También me comuniqué con el Departamento de Salud del Condado de DuPage la semana pasada. El 1 de abril, Kevin Sur, de la Oficina de Seguridad Nacional y Manejo de Emergencias del Condado de DuPage, me escribió en un correo electrónico: “La Oficial Médica del Departamento de Salud del Condado de DuPage, la Dra. Rashmi Chugh, ha intentado comunicarse con la Iglesia Calvary de Naperville, pero no ha escuchado nada. de vuelta de ellos. En este momento, todavía nos estamos acercando a ellos”.
Sin embargo, el 4 de abril, Don Bolger, oficial de información pública del Departamento de Salud del Condado de DuPage (DCHD), me dijo que DCHD había estado en contacto con la iglesia desde el 30 de marzo, un día después de la muerte del pastor Escamilla.
Cuando le pregunté sobre la naturaleza de ese contacto y si hubo una investigación, Bolger respondió: “DCHD trabaja con cualquier organización afectada para respaldar su respuesta y brinda recomendaciones basadas en la orientación del Departamento de Salud Pública de Illinois y los Centros para el Control de Enfermedades. y Prevención.”
Correo electrónico de Diane Bell:
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English
43 Respuestas
This is a typical church leadership response; like the Roman Catholic church has been doing for years after they ignored their priests sexually abusing children. It is called ‘closing ranks’ or ‘circling the wagons’. How about the church leaders owning their sin and repenting? But they can’t do that because someone might get saved.
Jacob, I agree that it is unacceptable for churches to cover up wrongdoing–an all-to-common human response to committing sin. But I would challenge your assertion that such behavior is “typical.” You provide one example, and it’s an egregious one: the coverup of child sexual abuse in certain Roman Catholic churches. I’m sure you could list others, sadly. But to call such behavior “typical” means that it is true more often than not, and I do not think that is the case. There are churches that are transparent. They should not be painted with the same brush.
Not from my experience sorry to say. And that goes with denominations like the PCA, United Reformed Church of North America, RPCNA, Harvest Bible Chapel, and more. They can often say all the right things but when they are under heat, they cover up. See Reformed500.webs.com
Shame on you Calvary Naperville! Shame on you Pastor Marty Sloan! And shame on you Diane Bell, Director of Human Resources! Have you both signed the “liability waiver” to NOT sue the church if anything happens, including death? I think not. Knowing the way megachurches operate – as I attended one for 5 years – you have a large group of attorneys that will protect you if something like this happens. YOU will be IMMUNE from this waiver, and the innocent Body of Christ who worships there will have no protection for themselves or their families from the likes of you who see nothing but dollar signs. GOD HELP YOU….because no one else will…..!!!
Fortunately, not so. The peolle can still sue even if they sign the waiver. Sloan’s just trying to bully them into not suing. Either that, or he has incompetent fools as legal counsel who thing this sort of nonsense would be honored by a court of law. One thing I’ve learned in my decades on this earth and as a lawyer is that cult leaders and their lawyers are imbeciles when it comes to the law.
They need to find a new law firm, maybe find some lawyers who aren’t as dumb as a box of rocks. You cannot contract your way out of liability for your own negligence in this manner. If you mess up and are negligent and as a result parishioners or staffers get Coronavirus, that signed document is absolutely worthless in a court of law. I’ve been a lawyer over a quarter century and have worked as corporate council. These leaders are obviously not concerned at all about anyone in their church (except inasmuch as they repreaent giving units) and are trying to take advantage of people’s ignorance about the law to dissuade them from filing a lawsuit with genuine merit. That’s the sort of thing only a hard bitten sociopath would do, IMHO. Church members need to run this monster straight out the door asap.
Julie Roys…May our God, in the NAME of JESUS and by His SPIRIT, cover you as you continue to press on..REVEALING TRUTH.
Few things Julie.
1. This is absolutely DESPICABLE OF YOU to put such messy not researched drama out for the church body to read. You are not a reporter you are a gossip columnist.
2. we as THE church TM are already under attack because many pastors around the country are refusing to cancel services and their members are getting sick and dying. Those are facts if you’re going to call pastors and churches out why not them?? because the truth doesn’t ACTUALLY matter to you. You want to cause drama.
3. Where in the bible does it say that this is the way to handle ANY type of disagreement or wrong doing with fellow believers?? no where oh yea thats what I thought.
HUMBLE YOURSELF. REPENT. and go find some THERAPY.
praying for you truly because you are causing so much harm to the body of Christ when you a “fellow believer” attack so publicly and recklessly.
I think calling her a believer is being generous but naive. Jesus said “by your fruits you will be known”
Her fruits and her trail of destruction follow her everywhere.
Cynthia Lauder. I respectfully disagree with your statement, although I am having a difficult time with the word, “respectfully” as I respond to your comment. Your judgement is off-base and is simply the response of an angry commenter who thinks insulting others and shaming someone publicly is an effective argument. You comment holds no weight and is clearly seen as an insult. You also indicate a rather large amount of ignorance about the work of Julie Roys. She is not the one responsible for the “trail of destruction.” For years she has shed a light upon the church’s failures and transgressions to its members and to GOD. If you can’t see that then you are blind. She is, in fact, a great example of a Believer who is known by her fruits of discernment and truth. You came her for no other reason than to insult and add your “fruit.” You are also know by your “fruits on slander.”
When some sheep are actually vultures dressed in sheep’s clothing, intent on fleecing the congregational flock as “victims” of something-or-someone to blame other than themselves, we can thank our profitable litigation-happy society.
It’s a shame so many christians these days look to blame others for their troubles and try to make money off them. Rarely do such christians pray to God in these times for help, especially as public comments. And rarely do such christians think what “Thy Will be done” means in the Lord’s prayer. Might it be that hiring an attorney to sue others seems to them far more certain and lucrative than praying to God that His Will be done?
If it is possible to always blame pastors and church leaders, then certainly such spiritually dry people exist among the congregants as well. Yet no one ever questions the motives of victims! It is sad that churches must protect themselves against lawsuits of vultures; but as I prefer not to donate to greedy elders, I also prefer not to donate to greedy *christian* victims.
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Wow. There’s currently a wildfire outbreak in the Chicago area, which stems from not sheltering in place in a timely manner. Two Walmart employees there died from exposure too. We don’t know who Pastor Escamilla and his family or those people in the recording session who were also exposed (and one has since tested positive), were in contact with when they were infectious and asymptomatic or just becoming symptomatic.
I know this doesn’t seem fair to you, but this is a public health matter and it’s socially responsible to report in this before more people are killed because of it. Don’t blame Julie for that.
MST, or whoever you are, you continue to write inaccurate statements. To clarify, the “drama” is not the invention of Julie Roys but rather the effect of your pastor that failed to protect his flock and continues to fail at being transparent. He is the one responsible for this “drama.” And I will also add you are also responsible for continued drama if you can’t post an accurate response to well-documented articles. You do not have a clear Biblical understanding of the scriptures if you think Roys has handled this improperly. You lack the credibility to tell her to seek therapy and repent when you insult in such a sarcastic and demeaning manner. You are the one who should apologize to her for your post.
To MST and Cynthia Lauder,
Few things MST,
1. You miss the primary point as a small minion (pun intended) and focus on Julie Roy rather than the issue itself. In the words of Thomas Modly; you are “either too naive or too stupid” and I trust not both. Another CCN staff took the initiative to trust Julie Roy in exposing the ignorance and foolishness occurring at CCN with this liability waiver. Thus her responsibility and duty to report it.
2. Has your employer ask you to sign a similar liability waiver?
3. If CCN is correct in having their staff and volunteers sign this waiver; then hospitals, pharmacies, police, fire, first responders, the National Guard, USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, Costco, grocery stores, gas stations, truckers, public transits and other ESSENTIAL entities should follow suit and have staff sign a waiver. Reporting to work is optional then for doctors, nurses and all other essential staff as stated “If you don’t sign the waiver, you are not allowed on our property!!!!” (CCN email)
4. Why is CCN facilities available; Governor Pritzker imposed a stay-at-home order on March 20, 2020. Is CCN exempt?
5. Is God’s Word not taught accurately at CCN? 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 states that believers are not to take another believer to court. Why the fear of liability?
6. Is CCN protecting themselves since they did not disclose the CV-19 virus earlier to their congregates? Probably enhancing and accelerating its spread within their church.
Lastly, I totally agree with M. Wiggins comment on 4/7/2020 12:18pm about MST. “One more thing: In all candor, you sound evil.” I wish to add “a tool and active instrument of Satan”.
Evil what they did for NOT living in TRUTH as again reiterate it’s NOT about healthy people or families but building their Business, kingdom, empire as they don’t want the attendance and tithe money going away! Since the Churches are exempt per the News although that changes day to day, people are SO dumbed down and brainwashed that they are NOT thinking of when you gather that someone could be sick/ill and get others and their famiy members sick; they’re not thinking especially of people in general or the elderly. Pride of religiosity of your not telling us what to do, or freedom of religion, or separation of church and state WHATEVER EXCUSE.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-29/louisiana-church-defies-covid-19-order-holds-sunday-services
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-31/coronavirus-megachurches-meeting-pastors
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/04/us/04reuters-health-coronavirus-usa-palmsunday.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-pastor-arrested-after-holding-church-services-despite-coronavirus-orders-n1172276
Sad, that we thinking buildings/pastors are the church; when it’s People are the church, NOT BUILDINGS. Contact your First Amendment right Attorney’s John Whitehead, Constance Cumbey. How very sad for people who TRUST their leaders. These are NOT true shepherds looking out for the flock, NOT AT ALL: https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/bible-verses-about-pastors/
Sloan is nuts. He disregards Romans by disobeying civil authorities. He is not a believer by his moronic actions. He does not deserve the title pastor or minister.
IDPH is worthless. I took care of one of the earlier diagnosis of covid and unfortunate deaths in Illinois. The patient was low risk regarding exposure (pretty much a home body except for routine errands). I was asked to update family on the patient’s status. I looked at the patient’s contact info and saw religious affiliation. I was the first to recognize that this was likely the source of exposure (house of worship with >200 visitors at last day patient was there). I tried to contact IDPH and Cook department of health and unable to reach anyone. I did leave message. I wish I was able to call her house of worship but feared violating HIPPA. With one of the earliest cases in Illinois, I expected more action.
I read the article and was wondering which pastor died? The headline says: After Pastor Dies of COVID-19, Embattled Church Requires Staff to Sign Liability Waiver. The clear implication is that it was one of the pastors of Calvary. Could you please provide some clarification.
It states his name in the beginning of this article. Pastor Angel Escamilla.
Refreshing to have voices like yours Roys calling out such behavior. Imagine if all this takes place unbeknownest to anyone and all we see is everyone clapping alleluia when people are hurting inside cowering in fear.
Dios ayudanos
Doug
This statement was copied from the above article:
On March 29, a beloved and longtime pastor at Calvary Naperville, Assistant Pastor Angel Escamilla, died after testing positive for COVID-19.
M Wiggins, nicely stated.
Thank you Julie for printing truth. Your articles are so critical to believers as they expose church leaders who have lost their first Love.
Seems to be a present day trend that the staff and leaders of many mega Evangelical churches change into greedy dictators at some point during their ‘leadership’ of these churches.
Never give up or give in Julie as many in leadership roles at these churches seem to have already done.
pete kramer
It is interesting that Bolger’s comments hardly seem like an audit of CC Naperville:
“When I asked about the nature of that contact and whether there had been an investigation, Bolger replied, “DCHD works with any affected organization to support their response, and provides recommendations based on guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
I don’t interpret this as a statement that CC Naperville was found to “have done nothing wrong” as Mr. Dawes as stated. I even wonder if there is any document indicating that CC Naperville was “audited?” An audit would typically point out strengths and weaknesses or success and failures. Is CC Naperville going to share that document with us IF it even exists? They would if they were transparent.
No surprises here as I have learned through some of the comments here that this “pastor,” who is actually a white-washed, greedy, lying septic tank, preaches a prosperity message. That message is now under judgment and good times are not going to roll again for some time. That message is a false gospel that leads to death. Just read the New Testament to see what is says about the rich, wealth, Mammon and greed. It says the opposite of what Rev. Narcissist and his partners in crime preach.
Beyond that I see that we continue to have people coming on here to harass Julie claiming that she is wrong for publicizing clearly evil actions according to the scriptures. This is indefensible. Someone died and Rev. Narcissist did not do either the wise or the loving thing and now he does not want to be held accountable for it. Luckily, he is so extremely foolish that he is doing that which will not hold up in a court of law. God has allowed this, and His Holy Spirit has encouraged the leaking of this fact so that this utter garbage can be exposed to the light of day. I can see no actual Christian publicly defend this man, or attack Julie. I can see Machiavellian people who have been assisting in this greedy scam disguised as a church doing that because their source of illicit gain is threatened by what the Holy Spirit is doing by dragging this b.s. out into the light. If there was no greedy financial incentive on the part of some who are not even commenting under their own name, there would be no one defending what is evil.
We are living in a time of judgment. This is something that happens periodically throughout history. Over time the evil in the world reaches a level where God can no longer tolerate it and so various judgments come in order to bring correction. This is primarily because His own people lost their Fear of God as generations that had it die off and are replaced by ones that do not have it. This gets worse until it reaches a climax and God sends correction again. This happened in Noah’s time in the biggest way. This happened in cycles to the Jewish people and still does today. It happens in the Church too. Why does God allow wars, pestilence, famine and natural disasters? These are birth pangs yes, but they also postpone the actual apocalypse into its proper time. What is happening now requires 20/20 spiritual vision to understand, from God’s perspective. That perspective is the only one that is important. For that you must understand what Exod. 20:20 says. It is for us today as much as it was for the original audience all the many centuries ago.
To MST (4/6 post),
Tell us which lies she told. We’ll be waiting.
By the way, the place in the Bible where it says to call out leaders like this is “But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning.” I Timothy 5:20. That’s where it is, MST.
One more thing: In all candor, you sound evil.
Collateral damage. Some, not all but some churches are fine with collateral damage if it happens for the greater good of their little institutional, business minded endeavor. Stuff like this is brought to light when protecting the institution trumps pastoring/protecting the sheep.
Proverbs 24:10-12 says “If you faint in the day of distress, how small is your strength! Rescue those being led away to death, and restrain those stumbling toward the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know about this,” does not He who weighs hearts consider it? Does not the One who guards your life know? Will He not repay a man according to his deeds?”
Julie is doing what we all are obligated to do as Christians. We are to stand in the gap to help those being led away to death (physical and spiritual). That’s what Jesus did for all of us. He stood in the gap and covered our sins, leading us away from death into salvation and eternal life.
Sadly too many Christians have been deceived into joining social clubs where ungodly men and women are leading them astray. I think Christians in these sorts of “churches” are some of the most vulnerable people. They need help. So, don’t get mad at the messengers trying to help people and save lives. Get mad at the ones claiming to be Christian leaders yet are leading people to slaughter! Why not get mad at them for a change? There are serious abuses resulting in physical and spiritual death taking places in these “churches.” Why aren’t you defenders of the wrongdoers angry about that?
What this organization did is evil. They deliberately disobeyed and enticed people to disobey the stay at home order put in place to protect everyone from Cornonavirus. That’s bad enough. Then when people came into contact with someone at the church who had the virus they hid it! Instead of telling the truth and telling people to go get tested they covered it up. Now they have the audacity to ask people to sign an agreement, not worth the paper it is written on, that they think will indemnify them from liability. I’m sorry but that is just outrageous, disgusting, and evil.
I truly hope the members there don’t do what many in other churches have done and ignore the very obvious ungodly behavior of their leadership and keep attending. The leadership there have demonstrated they only care about themselves.
Julie Roys, what will be the outcome for Martyn Sloan? Will he be held accountable for endangering lives?
Julie Roys is to be commended for publishing these stories. A careful reading of her writing indicates that she is checking facts and asking the individuals involved for comment. When confronting sin, Matthew 18:15-17 lays out a series of progressive steps to resolve a matter. Unfortunately, the party being confronted in this instance IS the leadership of this church so it is reasonable to bring the matter before the larger body of Christ, just as it has been in numerous other incidents (I.e. Harvest).
Instead of maintaining secrecy and/or having people sign these ridiculous liability waivers and expose their people to danger, godly shepherds would take the necessary steps to mitigate risk as so many churches are presently doing with livestreamed services, Zoom for small groups, etc.
As someone who used to work on staff at two mega churches led by authoritarian leadership, I can honestly say I’m not the least bit surprised at the actions that led to the initial cause of the spreading infection, nor the actions taken to cover things up and make a lame attempt at litigation management, after word leaked out and the damage (and death) had already been done.
There is a problem when the the senior pastor is put on a pedestal with only 2 rules that apply: 1) The Senior Pastor could never be conceived as being capable of doing anything wrong, and 2) If the Senior Pastor is caught doing something wrong, refer to rule #1. This is why so many come here to defend actions that are completely indefensible, kinda the blind leading the blind. Kudos for Julie shining the light in darkness!
Oh to be a fly on the wall for the “mandatory” all church staff meeting that was called after the first email was leaked…”There’s sin in the camp” and nobody’s leaving until we find out who!!! Been there, done that, have the participation badge! I guess the first staff meeting didn’t work to their expectations if staff leaking the subsequent legal document feel that they are under close scrutiny for leaking the legal document. Definitely some trust and credibility issues at hand with the leadership. This church was long considered one of the flagship A/G churches in the country. I once visited it many years ago, it was an amazing church! What on earth happened??? Something in the drinking water in the greater Chicago area??
I feel terrible for those on church staff who fear for their jobs and livelihoods. Full respect for those who cared enough to “leak” these emails to the public. Please be encouraged, and take that brave first step to leave this abhorrently abusive environment. Yes the spiritual and mental recovery will take a long time (measured in years and plenty of counseling sessions), but you and your family will be happier in the long term. I’m living proof of that.
I agree, Jacob. I find that manipulation, obfuscation, half-truths, etc. are such an integral part of ‘christianese’ and church political rhetoric that even pastors who are decent human beings have no idea what they are actually doing.
Wow, MST…it seems as if facts don’t matter to you.
Thanks to Julie in reporting this issue. My concern is the message that the church is presenting to the world; that fear is greater than faith.
1. Presently staff, contractors and volunteers are required to sign this waiver or not be allowed on church’s property. Will members and guest be required to sign waivers as well?
2. The church could learn from Samaritan Purse and not be so concern about liability. It is an opportunity for the church to reach out and meets the physical needs for Heaven’s sake. Samaritan Purse has been proactive in the frontlines to send teams to New York and Italy; the epic centers of the CV-19 virus. It is a opportunity to show the love of Christ during these difficult times.
3. Thank God that mission agencies have not required their missionaries to sign liability waivers in the case of illness, injury or death or the Gospel would not reach the uttermost part of the earth.
4. And to MST comment on 4/6/20 at 9:17pm; you write “3. Where in the bible does it say that this is the way to handle ANY type of disagreement or wrong doing with fellow believers?? no where oh yea thats what I thought”.
I re-phrase your question “Where in the Bible does it say that churches have staff sign liability waivers? Jesus did not have His disciples sign waivers when they were in Simon the Leper’s house (Matthew 26) or any other illness with healing ministries.
Comments like MST’s follow a similar pattern, with virtually identical language and tone of voice. It is almost as if the same person is jumping around posting these rage mode defenses of pastoral abuses on different fora all over the net. Not suggesting that is what’s literally happening of course, but I’ve been reading these posts for many years coming from different churches and on different blogs and it’s striking how they sound identical.
They all accuse the watch blogger of telling diabolical lies, but they never cite a single lie.
They are always over the top hostile, like a three-year-old tantrum, you can just picture them covering the keyboard with spittle.
They typically accuse the blogger of destroying the church, as if a blog post somewhere on the internet could bring down an entire church.
I have a couple theories. One is that many of these posts are from the pastor himself posing as a concerned parishioner and what we are seeing is the narcissistic rage of one with NPD who cannot control the narrative. The other is that it is some type of very unclean spirit manifesting itself, rather than the person writing it per se. Maybe it’s both. Just speculating.
As you can probably tell from my posts, I do all I can to try to understand all sides of an issue, and even try to recall my own personal experiences and apply empathy.
For example, when it comes to Calvary: while it is TERRIBLE to keep the COVID diagnosis of a pastor or other staff member a secret, I DO understand not asking others to talk about it – NOT out of secrecy, but because it is the infected person’s personal business AND their responsibility to do so. Furthermore, whether we like to admit it or not, churches are RAMPANT rumor mills, with reputations altered by spreading of half truths, lack of context, misunderstood facts, misapplied scriptures, and sometimes even downright lies. I have known of close friends and family who have told me of health diagnoses – pregnancy, cancer, kidney disease, and liver failure – AND have asked me not to speak of it to others for a variety of reasons (fear of another miscarriage, not wanting pity or unwanted attention, etc), INCLUDING not wanting to be the topic of rumors. Granted, while these are not contagious conditions, I did understand it is THEIR health, THEIR responsibility to manage as they see fit, and NOT my business or story to share.
I have seen the same thing happen with church administrative news: I’ve been told of pending firings and church transfers (I have friends and extended family members who are in ministry at large congregations), yet also told to please keep it to myself until announcements are made. Again, not really “life or death” situations, but situations in which I understood why I was being told to hold my tongue (so I would know the truth in case I heard a rumor, etc).
In the case of waivers, I think it is HORRIBLY irresponsible for churches to be holding physical services or demanding ANY sort of non-essential physical presence in this environment. However, given what is publicly known about COVID – and in the case of Calvary, having experienced a loss to COVID (not sure if it was preventable) – is it terrible to put the accountability on the public to proceed with caution? At what point do you say, “YOU know about COVID; if you physically come on our campus and compromise social distancing guidelines knowing what you know, that is on YOU”? Brothers and sisters, there are people WILLINGLY IGNORING social distancing guidelines, proven by the fact that we have police on the streets breaking up gatherings, stopping pickup games of basketball in the park, and turning back Lakefront visitors. And history has shown that those same people ignoring warnings will turn around and sue when their own willful ignorance leads to tragedy. If the church is not doing a dance of a double-edged sword dance of “we mandate you come here, but if you do you can’t sue us”, then I understand wanting to protect themselves.
So overall, I’m not surprised about the liability waivers, nor do I see them as completely vile.
I could be wrong, but this is my perspective based on trying to understand multiple sides to the issue.
Thing that bothers me is people at the church had every right to know whether or not they’d been exposed, a genuine need to know that could literally have been a matter of life and death. For the pastor to keep that under wraps under the circumstances was just plain wrong. For people from the church to cite HIPAA regs as a justification was either a blatant lie or inexcusable ignorance. I see no other side to that issue. There’s the right side and the wrong side, those are the two sides of such issues, and Sloan was on the wrong side, arguably the evil side.
But totally agreed about a lot of the other issues you mentioned, some non-contagious disease or family issue that others really have no right to know like pregnancy, cancer, miscarriage which you cited, you’re right, there are many times people need to have their privacy respected. Unfortunately, churches can be poor respecters of this.
Back in late February, before COVID was everywhere, we found out there had been a case at my school. The staff were told, but we were not told who it was. That’s proper use of HIPPA-yes, this exists, no we can’t tell you who. At that point, California had not shut down. When the second case emerged, the school shut down the day before the state shut down.
Obviously, when you are talking about a church staff where everyone knows everyone else, just mentioning someone has a serious illness will cause folks to arrive at a conclusion of who it is without being told. But, the person’s privacy (under HIPPA) isn’t violated by a general announcement that a case of COVID has been detected. A general announcement would have given the staff the opportunity to decide what they needed to do to protect themselves and their families.
A person’s privacy as far as HIPAA (not HIPPA) is concerned would not have been violated by the school naming names, nor would it have been violated by a church naming names, because HIPAA does not restrict schools and churches. It applies to hospitals, doctors, clinics, health care insurers, etc. You are absolutely right that a general announcement would not violate that law–but neither would a specific announcement.